Stories of Wise Women and Faithful Wives, Part II
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Title: Description:
Ôiko (大井児) damming a stream with a huge rock Robinson:
S20.17 |
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Title:
Princess Sayo at Matsu-ura (Matsu-ura
Sayo-hime, 松裏佐用姫) Description:
Sayo-hime at Matsu-ura in Robinson:
S20.18 |
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Title: Description:
Shizuka-gozen wearing the full dress of a shirabyôshi,
in which she danced before Yoritomo at Tsuru-ga-oka Robinson:
S20.19 |
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Title: The
Maid Take-jo (Kokuji Take-jo, 嬶竹女) Description:
Take-jo sprinkling grain for birds Robinson:
S20.20 Note the halo formed by a
hanging pan around the head of this saintly servant |
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Title:
Princess Tamaori (Tamaori-hime, 玉依姫) Description:
Tammayori-hime (usually written Tamaori-hime) making fans in retirement after
the death of her husband, Atsumori Robinson:
S20.21 |
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Title:
Princess Terute (Terute-hime, 照天姫) Description:
Princess Terute pulling her crippled husband on a cart Robinson:
S20.22 |
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Title: Description:
Tokiwa-gozen fleeing with her children through the snow Robinson:
S20.23 |
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This is another edition of
the same design. It is a less
labor-intensive printing, which almost invariably means a later edition. The delicate shading of color in the sky
has been replaced by a solid grey. The
shading is called bokashi and was
achieved by hand-applying a gradation of ink to the wooden printing block
rather than inking the block uniformly.
This hand-application had to be repeated for each sheet of paper that
was printed. |
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Title: Description:
Tomoe-gozen seated on a padded mat supervising her young son Asahina Saburô
at fencing practice Robinson:
S20.24 |
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Another state of the above
design |
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Title:
Tora-gozen (寅御前) Description:
Tora-gozen in a wind, her hat blowing away; after the affair of the Soga
brothers she became a nun Robinson:
S20.25 |
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Title:
Uneme (采女) Description:
Uneme standing in court robes holding a fan with three nested ceremonial sake cups and a ceremonial sake pourer Robinson:
S20.26 |
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Title: Description:
Yamabuki-gozen seated on several shields by a log fire mending the coat of
her husband Yoshinaka Robinson:
S20.27 |
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Title: The
Wife of Kajiwara Genda Kagesue (Kajiwara
Genta Kagesue tsuma, 梶原源太景季妻) Description:
The wife of Kajiwara Genda Kagesue with a small girl attendant carrying a
branch of cherry blossoms Robinson:
S20.28 |
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This is another edition of
the same design. The above print is the
more labor intensive printing, which almost invariably means an earlier
edition. In this print, the woodblocks
for green ink (grass) and brown ink (both kimono)
were omitted, as was the pattern in the red portion of the little girl’s kimono. This pattern consists of light and dark
shades of red, which required applying red ink with two different
woodblocks. The dark red probably
represents two superimposed layers of ink while the light red is only a single
layer. |
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Title: The
Wife of Kusunoki Tei-i Masashige (Kusunoki
Tei-i Masashige tsuma, 楠廷尉正成妻) Description:
The wife of Kusunoki Tei-i Masashige restraining her young son Masatsura from
performing seppuku after his
father’s death Robinson:
S20.29 NOTE: The
term “hara-kiri”, although more
common in English than “seppuku”,
is considered in |
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Title: Description:
Fujinoe, the wife of Izumi no Saburô Tadahira, standing holding a naginata (pole arm) while an attendant
maid pours out hot drinks Robinson:
S20.30 |
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This is another edition of
the same design. The above print with
a blue top border and pigment in the steam emanating from the hot drinks is
the more labor intensive printing, which almost invariably means an earlier
edition. The gradual shading of ink is
called bokashi. Bokashi
was achieved by hand-applying a gradation of ink to the wooden printing block
rather than inking the block uniformly.
This hand-application had to be repeated for each sheet of paper that
was printed. |
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Title: The
Daughter of Dainagon Yukinari (Dainagon Yukinari musume, 大納言行成女) Description:
The daughter of Dainagon Yukinari painted a butterfly so lifelike that her
cat grabbed it Robinson: S20.31 NOTE:
Kuniyoshi loved cats and included them in many of his prints. It is said that they had the run of his
studio. |
“Robinson” refers to listing in Kuniyoshi: The Warrior-Prints by Basil William Robinson (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1982) and its privately published supplement.
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